Evangelicals tell moderator he is leading PCUSA to disaster The Layman Online Thursday, August 2, 2001 Rogers responds to critics I thank you all for being here and for being honest. You can imagine how painful it was for me to hear this. Particularly painful were the suggestions about my integrity. Jack B. Rogers Not a 'simple' evangelical I still am an evangelical by any normal definition of the term. Seven or eight years ago I agreed with you on homosexuality, but that was before I was forced to study the issue. C.S. Lewis once said that people want a simpler religion, but religion is not simple. … Do you think I want this grief? Since I raised the question I have not been invited to speak at a single evangelical conference. 'Two Confessing Church Movements' On the Confessing Church issue, I have to plead guilty to being a professor. The only thing I knew about that movement when I made that comment was what I read in The Layman, equating the movement with the Christians' experience in Nazi Germany. Their statement that this year's General Assembly is apostate confirms that they are schismatic. But I learned at the General Assembly that there are actually two Confessing Church Movements. One is schismatic and the other simply wants to confess. I apologized to those in the second group. 'It quoted the confessions' On the Assembly's statement about Jesus Christ, there was a difference between what some at the assembly said and what the assembly said. I came to this assembly determined to have it confess the faith, and it did. It quoted the confessions, and our Book of Confessions is the most orthodox that you can find anywhere. We also have a Book of Order, and if we quit following the Book of Order, we will lose our ability to have a democratic process. We have national standards in our Book of Order and we always allow the governing body closest to the issue to interpret and apply those standards. People on all sides of the ordination question deeply believe in the Word of God. I want to honor the vast middle of the church. DENVER – Evangelicals in the Presbyterian Church (USA) strongly criticized Jack B. Rogers, the new General Assembly moderator, and expressed their concern that he may be leading the Presbyterian Church (USA) to its last days. Those complaints were registered at a "conversation" sponsored by the Presbyterian Coalition during a meeting in Denver July 30-August 1. Rogers attended the session on July 30. After being both criticized and pleaded with – to return to a traditional evangelical expression of the faith – Rogers responded to his critics. Some of his comments are in the box at the right. Speakers criticized his theological orientation, his commitment to ordination of self-affirming, practicing homosexuals and his redefinition of marriage to include same-sex couples and his outburst against the Confessing Church within the Presbyterian Church (USA). After being introduced by Jerry Andrews of Glen Ellyn, Ill., co-moderator of the Coalition, Rogers said, "I'm here to listen to you and to try to communicate your concerns. We are in a difficult year. I'm not here to argue. I just really want to learn." Here is some of what he heard: Rebecca McElroy, vice moderator of the 2000 General Assembly: "One, I was disappointed at your 'apology' at the General Assembly regarding your remarks about the Confessing Church Movement. You should have offered that apology to the full General Assembly, not merely at the Presbyterians for Renewal breakfast. Your words seemed clever. You said you were sorry that people were offended. That is not an apology. Two, you represent the General Assembly as if it were the great middle of the church speaking. We are losing thousands. And each year the great middle of the church is only the middle of what is left. Three, You don't make sense to me unless you share Mr. Bohl's sentiment that the 'damned evangelicals should leave the church." [McElroy was referring to a comment made by Robert Bohl, a former co-moderator of the Covenant Network, of which Rogers served as an advisory member although his name was recently removed from the Covenant Network letterhead.] Herbert Schlossberg, an elder in National Capital Presbytery: "Recently I reviewed Arnold Toynbee's list of the characteristics of a declining culture. One of those characteristics is sexual antinomianism. If you don't get something that simple and basic right … " Philip Kevil: "Our bureaucratic structures are increasingly intransigent. I am asking if this church is reformable. If you continue that way you are going, you are going to wake up one morning and find that one third of the church is gone." John H. Stevens of First Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs: "I don't think you understand the gravity of this issue. Our General Assembly has moved away from the absolute basis of the church. People are shocked, appalled, but when I talk to the General Assembly staff, I don't think they get it. I am frightened for the future of the church. We have positioned ourselves for a disaster. Mr. Moderator, we've got to have some leadership from you. We have lost thousands of people from our church rolls, but the greater loss is among those who will not join a church that does not confess Jesus Christ. I don't see you giving us the leadership we need. In fact, I see you doing exactly the opposite. Unless you change your ways, this will be a very different church than it was when you became moderator." Harold Kurtz, retired executive director of Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship: "I'm concerned about what this General Assembly has done to our ordination standards. You have heard a lot from others about a split in the church. The split I worry about is between ourselves and the world church. There are 35,000 denominations in the world. Only four have approved homosexual behavior. We have not seriously engaged the world church on this issue. Our General Assembly acted without consulting the world church." Bill Dudley of Signal Mountain (Tenn.) Presbyterian Church: "I want to raise concerns over your statement about the Confessing Churches. I wonder how, after making that statement, you were 'converted' overnight, making your 'apology' to a private group the next morning. If you were truly sorry, you should have spoken to the entire body. This movement is increasing in great numbers. You cannot ignore this reality. These Christians are saying there is no other Lord, and they are estranged from the hierarchy of this denomination. We need a leader who will speak definitively about the Lordship of Jesus Christ. As a commissioner to the 213th General Assembly, I felt a great vacuum of spirit in that place. I plead with you to speak to the church and be truthful to your calling in your ordination vows." Rick Wolling of Beverly Heights Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh: "The Beverly Heights Church wants to be a growing church. Do you know what is the greatest impediment to our growth? That sign out front that says we are part of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Our church has about $4 million in assets, and we try to be good stewards of that. But we would walk away from it in a New York minute if keeping it was the price we had to pay for an association with a denomination that will not confess Jesus Christ alone as Lord." Sylvia Dooling of Voices of Orthodox Women: "I urge you to take a look at the Women's Ministry program of our denomination. I am concerned that we cannot be all things to all people. When it comes to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, we have to make a choice." Bill Dean of Presbyterian Reformed Ministries International: "My concern is the issue of transformation. People are hungry to experience a change in their lives. They ask, 'Does God have the power to change me?' But the idea that change is possible – or even desirable – was hooted at by the Covenant and More Light Networks. They say we're fine, just the way we are. I believe we need to hear that Jesus Christ has the power to take us from where we are to where he wants us to be." John Powell of Mount Lebanon Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh: "You were my teacher at Fuller Seminary. We shake our heads, Jack, and we wonder how you could lead us in the way you are. My prayer is that in your heart of hearts you will return to your first love. Your actions are not 'bridge-building.' What I am hearing is that you are the point person for the great divide in our denomination. You are the point person for heresy. We have been taken over by the shock troops and brown shirts of the left. We love you in Christ. Many of us would not be leaders in the Presbyterian Church if it were not for you. We urge you – our brother in Christ – to step back over the line, to be in the world but – for God's sake – not to be of the world. We want to be in fellowship with you, Jack, but these issues are the very test of fellowship." Louis Fowler, presbytery executive in North Carolina, Tennessee and now Alabama: "I have learned much from your books, and I have been happy to call you a brother in Christ. But I was deeply offended by the discrepancy between your self-description as an 'evangelical' and your public condemnation of the Confessing Church Movement. There is a vast discrepancy between your writings and your condemnation of those whose simple statement is that Jesus Christ alone is Lord. Today there is in our church a clash of worldviews. I think I first learned that from you. The Biblical worldview says that homosexual behavior is a sin. The secular worldview says it is God's gift. These worldviews are antithetical." Camille Josey of Atlanta, a commissioner to the 213th General Assembly: "The feeling I had at the Louisville Assembly was like a vision of Jesus Christ saying to those who led the bureaucratic structures of Jerusalem, 'Are you teachers of Israel, and yet you do not know these things?' What I saw in Louisville was the intellectual arrogance of our denomination's elite. I was also troubled by the unfairness that I saw at the assembly. That was particularly evident when committee leaders would not allow a representative of the church in Pakistan to speak on the ordination issue, but they welcomed speeches from representatives of the church in the Netherlands" [where homosexual activity is sanctioned, drug use has been legalized, and doctors are permitted to kill their patients]. Mort McMillan, former presbytery executive, now serving a church in Alabama: "I am now involved in major damage control. People are leaving. They are cutting off their gifts to the church. There is sadness and anger and dismay. We are a small presbytery and we need every one of our congregations. But many of them are looking for the door. One of our larger donors said last week, 'I'll tell you what I am going to do with my money. I've decided to give it to the Boy Scouts. They come closer to integrity than my own church!'" Joel D. Baker of Edmond, Okla.: "I am deeply offended by the actions of our General Assembly. I come from an active, growing church that has been systematically ignored by the denominational structure. We are the fastest growing church in our presbytery and its largest giver. Our executive told a recent graduate of Gordon Conwell Seminary that he wasn't welcome in the churches of our presbytery. I really wonder how the action of our General Assembly to replace our ordination standards with 'local option' can be constitutional. Our ordination vows say we are to be obedient to Jesus Christ, under the authority of Scripture and guided by our confessions. This is not a matter of local option." John F. Sloop of Harrisonburg, Va.: "As a local pastor I have tried to defend what the bureaucrats at our General Assembly level have done. But I'm losing my people. I lost a wonderful family after this year's General Assembly. They said they could no longer be a part of a church that denies the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The PCA church in our area has grown to more than a thousand people. It is full of college students and young professionals who are committed to the gospel. When our session discussed becoming a part of the Confessing Church Movement, one of my elders said, "This is a no-brainer!" Our session members want to cut off every penny to the General Assembly. I have a young person in my congregation who cannot understand how you could have campaigned on 'marriage and family' issues when you also work with the Covenant Network. You use good words, but give them different definitions, completely different from mine. You say you are an evangelical and you greet us in the name of the sovereign Lord Jesus, and yet you deny that sovereignty. We are no longer talking about a mere difference of opinion. It looks more like another gospel, as Paul said in Galatians. Obviously, something has happened in your life. I would like to know what has caused you to change." Tom Edwards of Eastminster Presbyterian Church in Wichita: "I meet regularly with four pastors from my area. They represent the only growing churches in Southern Kansas. We are grieving over this General Assembly. Part of my task at Eastminster is to work with our mission partners around the world. Our General Assembly's views on homosexuality are hurting us deeply with our partner churches. They are on the verge of telling us that they can no longer be in fellowship with us because of this issue." Fred Maloney, elder, First Presbyterian Church of Yakima, Wash.: "I see the systematic attack on the body of Christ. We have thrown out everything that pertains to fidelity in order to support the homosexual activists. We are personifying evil, and like the devil, we are splitting Christ's church." Jeremy Grant of Omaha, Neb.: "The group of pastors with whom I meet has asked me to plead with you. We ask you to make a U-turn. Jesus Christ is the Lord, not a lord. The word of God is ultimately trustworthy and reliable. After hearing this year's General Assembly, I had the sense that there is no reason why I should bother to tell my neighbors about Jesus. They are fine, just as they are. You have an opportunity to bring unity to this church by coming back to the gospel. There is no other gospel. But in your leadership position you have spoken words that cause great harm to the church. People are leaving us." Pamela Powell, a Presbyterian minister and assistant professor of pastoral ministry at Trinity Episcopal School for the Ministry in Pittsburgh: "Jack, you were a bright light for me as a teacher at Fuller Seminary. But you have made a commitment to a different culture. As a pastor and seminary teacher, I have a great concern about this. Look at the death rate in the homosexual culture. Promiscuity is rapidly rising. We are promoting a lifestyle where people are dying in droves. And because of what we say, they are encouraged to think that this self-destructive behavior is godly. Turn around Jack. For God's sake, turn around." Jim Mead former vice moderator of the General Assembly and now executive at Pittsburgh Presbytery: "The General Assembly was politically nuanced. The problem for me is not so much what the General Assembly said, as what it finally did not say. Denominational leaders rallied to make sure that the General Assembly refused to say what Scripture so clearly says. I am also concerned over your remarks about the Confessing Church Movement. They have had the effect of marginalizing a significant part of the body of Christ. I have wondered if you intended to hold these brothers and sisters up for ridicule. Marginalization is an effective political strategy. You are pushing the church closer to schism."

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